Those Tools Called Shinobi
by riothedragonman
Summary: An ongoing, complete Alternate Universe reworking and retelling of Naruto. The goal is to refine characters, setting, motivations, and consequences of various events in the series, as well as refining characters and giving them more of a narrative reason to exist. Characters and events will be altered, sometimes drastically, to make for a more mature and thematic story.
1. Foreword

_**Those Tools Called Shinobi**_

_By RioTheDragonMan_

_**Foreword**_

Hello gentle-readers. First things first, before my fanfic is presented I wanted to introduce myself and the nature of this story as it is about to unfold before you. I am RioTheDragonMan, by internet parlance. Throughout middle and high school, I considered myself an aspiring writer, with countless unfinished stories kept in school-grade compositional notebooks filled to the brim with a rogue's gallery of characters nobody but me and my friends ever read or knew about, as I shared these stories with them regularly. I went to an art school for game design, where I fell off of prose, but continued on with poetry, I habit I had started in high school.

This story I am trying to deliver here is a fan-fiction that I have sat on the ideas for for a long time, probably since I first watched the anime for Naruto when I was much younger and impressionable but still similarly disappointed with the contents of the series as it went on. This is my attempt to retell the story and characters in the Naruto series the way I wish it was told the first time, this is also my attempt to get back in the groove of writing fiction with the help of an established groundwork of events and characters, as I intend to springboard from this to writing original novels eventually.

For the fans of Naruto who would be reading, this story will contain quite a few plot lines from the original anime and manga. That said, they will seem familiar at first, but my intention here is to inject a larger sense of realism and believability within the world, at least in terms of character and political motivations and consequences of people's actions being deeper, more nuanced, and heavy. Those who are squeamish towards the potential of a character or two being irrevocably changed should be forewarned that I will not pull a punch on a character if I deem it dramatically appropriate, and I will use established characters and organizations to fill holes where appropriate. There are things that will be changed in a big way from the story you know. If you are averse to this idea, it would probably be best to not read on, but if you elect to do so and leave criticism, I encourage every word as long as it remains calm and constructive.

For those who are willing to undertake this wild ride with me, I hope I don't let you down and keep you coming to this story for regular updates as I find the time. I will try to keep updates at the very least weekly except for holidays, but at times I might have multiple chapters updated at once depending on how my work at this goes.

I thank you in advance for your attention and patience.

- RioTheDragonMan


	2. The Eager Rebel - 1

_**Chapter One - The Eager Rebel: Geography Lesson**_

-ⱷ-

A loud slam was heard, echoing and reverberating all over the walls of the academy classroom. A spiky-headed blonde teen of about fifteen years years old sprung to life from his forward-slouched, sleeping position, shuddering as he awoke from the shock of the sound. His eyes raced around his environment from behind a pair of dark-lensed goggles, searching in vindictive mirth for the cause of his alarm, only to find that the source was much closer than he was looking. He caught a glimpse of the tan-skinned hand that had collided with the long desk at which he was situated, and following that arm, past the shoulder, to the very face of the offender, a tawny, black-ponytailed man of about twenty-seven.

"Naruto Uzumaki! Sit up straight and stop sleeping in class!" The man blurted out in his mid-tone voice. The blonde boy with the goggles sneered defensively as he pulled them up from off his eyes, as if the very thought had never occurred to him to catch a few Z's with his goggles as a cover.

"As if! You just want to call me out to make me look bad in front of the class!" He said as he jumped to his feet, gesturing towards the rest of the student body who were all either watching with rapt attention, open-mouthed shock, or muted chattering and jeering directed to each other regarding the delinquent Naruto.

Iruka smirked and let out a chuckle before leaning in towards the boy and playfully jabbing, "Alright. If you weren't asleep, then why is there drool at your desk?" This caused Naruto to frantically look back at his spot where a small pool of liquid had collected.

Naruto tried to hold back a blush of embarrassment, which had resulted in noticeable twitch in his right cheek, making him look borderline psychotic for a split second as he formulated an excuse. "There's a leak in the ceiling, obviously!" He posited with what sounded like utmost certainty, pointing upwards in a dramatically flamboyant manner in a vain attempt to prove his point.

Iruka looked up where Naruto had pointed and nodded slightly, humoring the boy for the time being. He backed off a bit. "Alright Naruto... Just to make sure you were, in fact, listening..." Iruka turned around, making his way down from the tiered desks the students sat at to the bottom of the room. "...I'm going to have to drill you in Geography." He pulled out a pointer stick and gestured towards the map that was rolled out in front of the long black board, separating and coloring all of the different regions of the continent.

"Fine. Do your worst." Naruto said, with an excess of confidence, crossing his arms over his chest and scoffing at the very notion of having to deal with this situation.

"First, the warm-up questions. These first five are a gimme." Iruka said. "You ready?"

"Shoot." Naruto answered curtly.

"What's the name of the continent on which we live?"

"Otaitanken. It means Many-Daggers." Naruto answered immediately.

Iruka nodded. "Good. Now why is it called 'Many-Daggers'?"

Naruto sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Oh gee, Mister Iruka, it wouldn't be because most of the countries here have armies that specialize in the practice of Ninja Arts, would it?"

"Cut the lip and give simple answers only, please, it'll be a lot quicker that way." Iruka suggested with a smirk in response to the boy's facetiousness. "What is the village in which we live?"

"Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in Leaves, Sir!" Naruto answered in a military fashion this time, accompanied by a standard salute.

"At ease, soldier." Iruka said, playing along. "All right, two softball questions at once! What country are we in and who is our leader, as shinobi in this Village Hidden in the Leaves?!"

"Hi no Kuni, the Land of Fire, and us shinobi are led by the Hokage, who is regarded as the strongest ninja in the village!" Naruto answered enthusiastically.

"_One_ of the strongest." Iruka corrected. "The Hokage is determined by the village elders as the strongest shinobi in the village who also exhibits the capability to manage and lead the military power of the country. This practice also generally applies to the leaders of other countries here in the Otai." Iruka grinned proudly, pleased with the answers so far. "Speaking of foreign countries, which lands border us to the north?"

"Grass, Waterfall, Steam, Whirlpools, and erm..." Naruto paused, thinking a bit on what he had left out. "OH! Rice!"

"Great job, but a few corrections: The Land of Whirlpools is a ruin, no longer a functioning nation, though you are right that it was an island nation off our coast that we shared waters with in terms of territory." Iruka stated. "Also, the Land of Rice has changed its name to the Land of Sound, Oto no Kuni."

Naruto looked incredulous. "W-what the hell?! Rice is now Sound? When did that happen?!" He stammered.

"If you were paying attention, the Daimyo officially announced the change in title a little less than six months ago when he presented plans for a new Hidden Village in his country. This happened at the last meeting of the Allied Shinobi Forces in the Land of Lightning." Iruka smiled. "I just covered this before I called you out."

Naruto muttered under his breath. "Can't even trust what they teach you in schools anymore..."

Iruka called, having caught Naruto's not-so-subtle lip movements, "What was that, Naruto? I didn't catch that."

"Nothing!" Naruto chimed in a sing-song manner as he took a seat.

"Good. You pass the drill, Naruto, but only because I don't wanna keep you for detention on a weekend and you technically answered it right otherwise." The bell rang, dismissing the class. "Alright, I hope the lot of you were were behind on notes or didn't have this information down took this drill as an opportunity to do so! We'll be having a geography pop quiz at some point next week-" The class erupted into a collective, asynchronous groan as the kids rose from their seats and started collecting their things. "-And I reserve the right to hand them out whenever I feel like, so be prepared and have it memorized _before _you set foot in this classroom, you got me? Class dismissed, have a good weekend, and study up!" By the time Iruka was done dismissing the class, Naruto had already left, barreling over a few of his classmates to hop out of an open window, causing a minor ruckus. Iruka let out an exasperated sigh.

-ⱷ-


	3. The Eager Rebel - 2

_**Chapter Two - The Eager Rebel: A Cursed Psychopath**_

-ⱷ-

Naruto Uzumaki immediately made his way to the training grounds of the Academy, sprinting as fast as his feet could take him. When he made it there, the practice area was laid out before him with the usual accoutrements; a training dummy for hand-to-hand and melee weapon taijutsus, bullseye targets set up at random intervals for ranged ninjutsu and weapon attacks, and various paraphernalia scattered around hap-hazardly around the practice field for the purposes of training basic Academy techniques like replacement.

He also had his usual audience there waiting for him, a trio of younger academy students, about twelve to thirteen years old each, who had recently taken up the hobby of watching him. One of them had shaggy, dark brown hair, and always had a scarf around his neck, no matter what the weather was. There was also a second boy who had more medium brown hair, wore glasses and a fall coat and always seemed sick, as he was prone to shaking, like he had some kind of perpetual cold. Naruto was always amused by the thought in his head that the first kid took the other kid's scarf and just never decided to give it back, a thought which made Naruto smirk now as well as he reminded himself of it. The last was an orange-haired girl who wore her hair up in some kind of bulky ponytail and dressed always in a purple vest and layered skirt, her face was always rosy around the cheeks like she was blushing, though it could have been some kind of genetic thing.

There was something new about the lot of them this time, though, something they had just begun to wear amongst the three of them that Naruto hadn't seen before. They had all begun wearing goggles exactly like his. They couldn't be trying to emulate him, could they? If there was anything Naruto wasn't used to, it was people who looked at him positively. Almost everyone in the village treated him some kind of stand-offish disregard and they all had the same eyes when they looked at him, distaste, disgust, like a lot of them would be willing would be willing to gut him on sight if they could... Like the murderous intent and hate of a beast being restrained by some invisible force. There were a few people that reacted differently to him, sure, though these were few and far between. The only people he knew of who at least tried to treat him like a normal member of society was the current Hokage's family (the Sarutobis), and Iruka.

This made Naruto all the more curious who these kids were that would elect to watch him train and begin doing something so silly as wearing goggles like his. He had never really talked to them before, so what better time was there than now to break the ice? "Who are all of you?"

The shaggy-haired, scarfed boy chimed in immediately. "Konohamaru of the Sarutobi clan."

The shivering boy in the glasses let out a small sneeze before answering, "Udon"

The orange-headed girl smiled and introduced herself as well. "Moegi!"

"Sarutobi... You're the Hokage's grandson or great-grandson or something?" Naruto asked, completely unaware that the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had a grandson or great-grandson, through to Naruto his age certainly seemed to be capable of both... Prior to this, the only Sarutobis he personally met were the Third Hokage himself, and, briefly, his son Asuma, who would Naruto would occasionally bump into at the Academy as well. Naruto had always assumed Asuma was a teacher there.

"Yessir!" Konohamaru answered, respectfully.

"Sir? We're only a few years apart. You know who I am, right?" Naruto answered as he removed the orange and blue jacket he wore, revealing his black mesh shirt underneath as he placed the jacket on a safe spot on the ground by a lone tree stump. He figured he might as well talk while practicing if he was going to strike up a conversation.

"You're Naruto Uzumaki, sir!" Konohamaru said in response, still in that disciplined tone he started with.

Naruto began wrapping his hands in a bit of gauze, his intentions trained on beating the melee training dummy once all that was done. "You know this village hates me, right?" His first punch hits the dummy with a loud thwack, solid contact. "I'm curious, if you'll indulge me..." He gives the dummy a lightning fast one-two punch with his right and his left, starting to bounce on his feet slightly to get in a nice rhythm. "Do you know why everyone distances themselves from me-" He lets out some rapid-fire jabs- "...and treats me like shit?"

"People say you're cursed, and that's why you have no family." Udon replied.

"They say you're unstable, possibly a psychopath, and likely to kill someone." Moegi said.

Naruto stopped punching the dummy momentarily to turn specifically to Konohamaru. "And-? What does grandpa Hokage say about me? What makes your family so different? You guys almost treat me with respect."

"Grandad says you're a hero. He never explained why." Konohamaru said with a bit of a shrug, having no clue why himself.

"So if the general consensus of the whole village except Konohamaru's family thinks I'm cursed and some kind of latent murderer, why do you all come here?" Naruto asked, clearly confused with frustration clear in his voice as he tried to make sense of everything.

"We believe the Hokage." Udon piped up.

"The way you train, we think you're trying to prove yourself to people." Moegi explained. "At first... We came to watch you after Konohamaru urged us just to humor him, but after watching you, we believe in you." Moegi put on an encouraging smile as she placed her goggles over her eyes, and the other two kids followed the example and did the same.

"Thanks. No, really. Thanks a lot. I'm not used to having support. I won't let you guys down." He said in a trembling voice.

"Konohamaru!" A voice called out in the distance that sounded like what Naruto remembered of Asuma's, medium low and a bit gruff, like that of a smoker. "I'm off work, time to go home!"

The kids got up and began to leave. "Keep training, Naruto! We're sure you'll prove the village wrong and become the greatest shinobi who ever lived!" Konohamaru said encouragingly before they all ran off to head to their homes.

Naruto was floored. The village _was _against him after all, like he'd been suspecting all of these years. In their eyes, he was some kind of cursed psychopath and he had no idea why. On the bright side, the Sarutobi family's counter-cultural opinion of him was gaining ground, but why they saw him that way was even more astounding. He was either a cursed psychopath or a damned hero, and either way, he saw no ground he could stand on. These kids wanted to see him become the greatest shinobi who ever lived, his final exam for the Ninja Academy was coming up, and he couldn't even perform the most basic of Academy-level jutsus.

-ⱷ-


	4. The Eager Rebel - 3

_**Chapter Three - The Eager Rebel: An Unstoppable Force **_

-ⱷ-

As soon as the kids had removed themselves from the area, Naruto had resolved to practice channeling his chakra. The subject of chakra and the abilities powered by them always baffled and eluded Naruto. He could have swore he took every note and studied every method to harnessing chakra for jutsu, and yet every time he tried to put the concept into practice, nothing happened. He let out a heavy puff of air from his mouth and loosened his body as he started a strict rhythm of breath control, in through the nose, out through the mouth.

_I have to make this work. _Naruto thought to himself, hoping that psyching himself up could finally give him the boost he needed to make his chakra work for him. _I don't have much time until I have to make this work! I don't want to fail, I can't let Konohamaru and his friends and family down! _He thought. Especially considering, if what Konohamaru said was true, the Great Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi himself, was looking out for Naruto's progress. He wanted to make what few people believed in him proud and prove all the doubters in Konoha that he wasn't some cursed, violent outcast of society who would never amount to anything. Now that the idea was planted firmly in his head, he _WANTED_ to rise from less than nothing to become their hero.

Suddenly encouraged by his own drive to make this a reality, he swiftly breezed through the hand-signs for the Clone Jutsu, a technique that would release his chakra to create incorporeal duplicate images of himself. Tiger! Boar! Ox! Dog!- Every sign was perfectly performed, perfectly in place, and he could feel his life-energy, his chakra, collecting to the point of nearly bursting from his body!-

-But nothing happened. There were no clones generated, there was no visual indication that anything had ever occurred, all-in-all, the only thing he had accomplished was making his body sore and tired and breaking himself out into a bit of a cool sweat. He felt embarrassed for himself as, in searching for results, he noticed the training field was slightly fuller of life than it was before, more of his fellow students from other classes and teachers having made their way out of their studies to practice just as he was.

The dummy he had just used for his physical taijutsu training was now occupied by a girl with dark, blue-black hair and cloudy lilac eyes wearing a gray jacket. He noticed she was thankfully the only one who was looking at him, and she quickly looked away with a slightly noticeable blush that suggested that she was probably more embarrassed at being caught watching him than he was for having failed to perform a basic jutsu in public. He'd seen her around with extreme regularity before, though, and she had yet to really bother him about his failures, so he tended to just ignore the fact that she was even there and continue his training. Besides, right now, she seemed rather fixated on unleashed a startling flurry of quick jabs on the dummy at the moment.

He sighed in the face of his own failure, and reverted back to the breathing technique he had assumed when trying the Clone Jutsu. _Maybe that was just too advanced for me... Baby steps, Naruto... _He thought to himself as he racked his brain for a simpler academy jutsu... _Transformation! _He thought. He then reasoned to himself. _That one is like the Clone Jutsu, but all I have to do is use the chakra to manipulate my own image into an illusion of something else! If I could do that, I could step up to the Clone Jutsu without much problem._

Naruto loosened himself up once more, focusing only on collecting his chakra and dispersing it from all over his body, hoping to take on the image of something. He looked around for a target and settled on the girl with the bluish-black hair, who again turned to look away as soon as his eyes turned to her. _Why is she always looking at me when my back is turned? Maybe she's one of those people?_ Naruto thought, breaking his concentration on the matter at hand. _Is she one of the people who thinks I'm dangerous? _He shook the thoughts from his mind and gritted his teeth. If she was one of those people, he'd just have to prove her wrong, but the first step to that was focus! He regained his composure and focused on thoughts of her. He'd seen her around during training enough that transforming into her should be simple. She tended to wear the same varieties of clothes, her body's form was lean, but with healthy curves.

He kept and image of her in his mind as he closed them and performed the hand-signs. Dog! Boar! Ram!- Again, he wasn't off his mark, he performed the whole sequence without flaw, he felt his own power surging and boiling to the surface!- ...But nothing happened. Again he was left with nothing but frustration, a colder sweat, and the personal embarrassment of knowing that he had once again failed at something that should be so simple... Why couldn't he do it? The Transformation Jutsu was so basic that it was commonly learned and practiced by students three years younger than himself. He clenched his teeth again with the utmost frustration and let out a snarling growl of rage before unleashing an angry yell of "Damn it, why does it never work!"

He was so mad at himself that he wanted to punch something. What didn't help matters was that the whole training field was now as silent as the grave and every head was turned in his direction. For a moment, Naruto Uzumaki was staring daggers into all of them, his eyes taking on some kind of primal, feral rage, as if one word would make him descend on them and beat their faces in.

The silence was broken as a boy nearby threw a rock at Naruto, grazing his left cheek. The pebble accompanied by the boy shouting. "If you're not gonna do anything, go the hell away!"

"You're wasting space, Uzumaki!" A girl chimed in as she and other students joined in with the throwing of rocks and insults.

The girl with the bluish-black hair actually looked shocked and alarmed. From the looks of things, she started shouting back at them, but her voice fell on deaf ears, as she was practically drowned and muted by a torrent of shouts, the impact of rocks, and wicked, roaring laughter.

Naruto braced himself for a moment, his arms guarding his face as the stones were hurled at him from all directions. After a while, he saw an opening and charged for the boy who started it all, intending to beat him to a bloody pulp, only to find himself tackled from behind to his left side by someone he didn't spot. The students laughed and began to chant 'fight' repeatedly like an organized mob, which was pretty much what they had become by this point. "Lay off him! I'm not going to fight him!" Naruto heard from the person on top of him, the one who tackled him to the ground. It was a distinctly female voice around his age. He could see the kids scattering in disappointment as he looked up

"Come with me." She ordered, getting up off of him and allowing him up. He turned to see who it was who brought him down to find the dark bluish-black haired girl with a non-hostile, concerned look on her face. Naruto, tired of the confrontation and in no position to argue, offered no resistance. She placed his left arm up over her shoulders and walked him out of the Academy, the sound of jeering completely gone as the kids had gotten back to their own business.

Naruto and the girl walked on together for a few minutes wordlessly, Naruto's eyes stuck on their feet as they took each step in sync. "Where are we going?" Naruto asked. He lifted his head to watch her looking around as they traipsed the back-alleys of a neighborhood near the Academy.

"I'm just looking for a- Oh! Here we go!" She exclaimed as they ran across the neighborhood's rusty hand-operated water pump. "Sit." She ordered. Naruto sat Indian style on the ground beside the pump as per her instructions. "Now, take off your shirt." She said, a bit of a blush developing on her face as she said it.

"Shouldn't we have a date or two first?" Naruto joked with a wry smirk.

"Sh-shut up!" She stammered, her face turning a much deeper red. She carried a gray messenger bag with her, which she then grabbed and opened. A glimpse in the bag and Naruto could see a small wooden box with a red and white cross painted on it. She pulled out a small white hand towel and began to pump the water by hand onto the towel as Naruto removed his now hole-ridden mesh shirt. After looking him over and taking note of all the cuts and bruises, the girl began to wash Naruto's scrapes and cuts on his arms with the wet hand towel and a small single-use bar of home-cured soap. "You need to get these cleaned."

"I should probably break the ice, then..." Naruto said, still teasing. "What's your name?"

"Hinata. I'm from the Hyuga clan." She said, simply.

"No kidding? I haven't talked to many people from clans before. Well, besides Konohamaru Sarutobi. I just talked to him before you came to the practice field." Naruto said, trying to strike up a conversation and make the scene a little less awkward for Hinata.

"I've met him, he's nice, but a little excitable." Hinata responded, finishing the with scrapes on his arms. "Can you turn around so I can get your shoulders and back? I figure you can't really get your own back that well."

Naruto turned where he sat so his back was facing her. "So why'd you do my arms? I could reach those." Hinata didn't answer, so Naruto tried to change the conversation. "Why are you so different? You didn't throw things at me or call me names back there with the rest of them." He observed.

"I..." She paused. "I admire how hard you work at your training. Even if you don't always get results, you're always out here like clockwork, trying your hardest. That takes a lot of dedication."

"Back when I was about to charge that kid... Why did you stop me?" Naruto asked out of curiosity.

"I didn't want you to hurt him." Hinata replied. "You looked like you were going to kill someone, and I really didn't want you to make that mistake."

"I can't even do basic jutsu. What makes you think I could kill anyone?" Naruto said. Half of him really wanted to know the answer while the other half was frustrated again with that sad fact.

"Is that what you were trying to do? Academy Jutsu?" Hinata asked, cautiously deflecting from the very question he wanted answered.

"Yeah. It's weird like... Like I have this block, I can feel my chakra working when I try to focus it, it builds up, but it just refuses to leave and do what I want it to do. I know my form with the hand-signals is right, but the jutsus just don't happen, y'know?" He explained. "It just pisses me off! Why can't I make it work?"

"Have you ever thought about focusing entirely on taijutsu and weapon training?" Hinata asked before reaching around his torso under his arms to clean the cuts on his chest, belly, and sides.

"No? Aren't the basic ninjutsu required for graduation from the Academy to Genin-level ninja?" Naruto had never thought of the possibility.

"I'm not sure, but I've heard there's a graduate from last year who has the same problem. Rumor has it that he graduated by wowing the teachers judging his final exam with a special display of his taijutsu abilties. They call him the 'Jutsu-less Genin'." Hinata elaborated excitedly. "I heard this guy was able to punch a tree into splinters!"

Naruto could hardly believe what he was hearing. A kid this tough who was just a year older than they were? "If he can do that already, I could train as hard as him every day of my life and become the greatest ninja ever, justu or no jutsu!"

Hinata chuckled as she finished cleaning him up. "That's the spirit!" She said, standing up and washing the hand towel, allowing Naruto to stand up in front of her. "With that attitude, you could probably become Hokage someday!" She suggested offhand before getting back to the subject of his wounds. "Now, Naruto. You need to clean the scuffs on your legs yourself, but I have this to help them heal." She fetched a small ceramic jar from her messenger bag and handed it over to him.

"What is this?" Naruto asked quizzically.

"It's a special poultice." Hinata started, "I made it myself from some flowers in the family garden. I've tested and refined it over my Academy career by using it myself after training injuries and takes notes on the results."

"Wow, you're really smart, Hinata! Thanks." He said with a smile before he bent over to try to take his shirt back, but Hinata snatched the shirt away before he could grab it.

"This shirt's too far-gone. I was going to throw it away for you." Hinata then offered, "I- I can make you a new one and give it to you next week. Consider it a gift for graduating, from me to you."

"You're on! I'll train in taijutsu every day until I can't train any longer, and I'm going to impress them at the finals and graduate without ninjutsu! I'll see you at the graduation ceremony!" He said, encouraged to give his all over the next week. He picked up his orange jacket, put it on and was about to leave Hinata alone, before he turned around and walked back up to her. "By the way, Hinata..." He wrapped his arms around her waist, catching her off-guard as he gave her a tight hug. "Thank you for stopping me from doing something stupid. Thank you for everything you've done, and thank you for believing in me." He let her go and walked away, not looking back.

-ⱷ-


	5. The Eager Rebel - 4

_**Chapter Four - The Eager Rebel: The Faces**_

-ⱷ-

Over the next few days, Naruto gave his all to training his taijutsu and weapon skills. Often he would go on for many hours without rest. He'd taken up the habit of cutting classes and training at a location out in the woods near town, and though Konohamaru, Udon, Moegi, and Hinata came to the practice field every day in hopes to see him, they left every day with no clue as to where Naruto had gone. After a few days there were murmurs, jokes, and rumors all over the school passed around by the student populace that Naruto was kicked out of the Academy for various reasons ranging from the understandable, like delinquency, to the ludicrous, like having been found with a hit-list of all the kids in his school he wanted dead.

After a few days, Hinata asked around school about where Naruto lived, and while she mostly got dragged into other kids speaking derogatorily of him, she eventually got sent in the right direction by Asuma Sarutobi. She arrived to Naruto's house that Wednesday after classes and knocked vigorously on his door to find- ...No answer. It didn't look like he was anywhere to be found. She peered through windows and circled all the way around the house, catching sight nor glimpse of the blond teen.

The next day though, every inquiring mind was silenced and put to rest when the whole village awoke to see the Hokage faces, a statuesque monument of the village's current and previous Hokage leaders carved into the side of a large plateau near the center of town, was graffiti-ed, with a certain blond youth, panting and sweating from all of his efforts and exhaustion, looking down on the accumulating crowd. "I'm back, BITCHES!" He shouted rudely, making obscene hand gestures at the general populace as he smiled and laughed uncontrollably at the situation.

Periodically, adults would try and ascend the scaffolding Naruto stole to achieve this feat of defacement only to be greeted by Naruto tipping a bucket or two of unused paint onto them, halting their progress and sending them back down to the ground. There was much jeering from the public below, which Naruto received with a chuckle and a smile. "So this village does have a pulse?! I'm honestly surprised!" He shouted down as the amassing throng hushed themselves to hear his words for the first time ever, with undivided attention. "So this is what it took?! I had to deface your leaders- your heroes, to get heard?! Well, I have news for you..." Naruto broke into another laugh, which to the gathered crowd looked borderline maniacal. "They're NOTHING!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, an act which the crowd responded to with the throwing of shoes and vegetables, few of which made it high enough to reach Naruto's scaffold.

"All of these men you admire and worship?" Naruto continued. "They earned their places on this rock through displays of unnatural powers beyond the grasp of normal people! Soon, I will earn my place here through sheer force of will!" Ironically, Naruto then immediately felt a force grab him from behind just as he finished the sentence, much to the pleasure of a cheering audience below. He turned to see Iruka's face scowling back at him. "H-how did you get to me?!" Naruto blurted.

"You were distracted, Naruto..." Iruka growled as the crowd beneath them began clapping and then slowly started to break up and dissipate. "You know what you have to do now, right? You have to spend today cleaning up every spot of paint you left on these faces, you got me?!" Iruka shouted in Naruto's ear. The man looked absolutely furious, and was probably showing great restraint by not punching Naruto square in the face.

"That's fine with me." Naruto sneered slightly. "It's not like anyone's going to wait up at home for me anyway. Besides, I accepted the possibility of having to clean all this up long before I did it."

Iruka had Naruto leave the Hokage Faces with him for a bit to get rid of the paints and fetch a plethora of cleaning supplies and strong soaps. They also stopped by the Academy briefly, where Iruka explained he needed to take off for the day so his class could be substituted as he dealt with Naruto and his morning shenanigans. They returned to the Faces, where they spent the better part of the day in an awkward stone silence, Naruto hard at work cleaning his mess, and Iruka lording over the boy and his work like a hawk.

As evening began to fall and the cleanup was nearly finished, Iruka finally spoke up. "Naruto. Why did you do this? Why did you graffiti the Hokage Faces?"

"Why do you care?" Naruto retorted, in the middle of scrubbing the last bits of paint off of the face of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage.

Iruka sighed. "I'm your teacher, Naruto! Nobody's seen you for the better half of a week, and then you re-appear just to paint all over the Hokage Faces and shame our village? On top of that, I always come around to check on you, I'm the closest thing you have to a family, so I have plenty of reasons to care!" He said, his voice progressively increasing in volume until he ended with a pained sigh just as Naruto finished cleaning the faces. "Look, I'm just really concerned about you... Maybe we should talk this all over over some nice, hot bowls of ramen? What do you say?"

Naruto said nothing for a few seconds, his face instead forming a conflicted frown with a thoughtfully furrowed brow, which he turned to face Iruka. "I do love ramen... Ichiraku?" Naruto asked for clarification.

Iruka chuckled. "Would I ever take you any place else?"

So after making their tour of cleaning up and returning the cleaning supplies and returning the scaffolding, Iruka and Naruto made their way to Ichiraku Ramen, a restaurant near Naruto's house that specialized in hot, gourmet ramen with unique flavors and fresh ingredients. The overall look of the place was rather homey and rustic, a small wooden building with rice-paper accents all over. Once they were inside, they were greeted by a middle-aged man a little older than fifty behind the main counter, wearing a white apron and a small chef's hat that covered a fair bit of his crown of dark grey hair.

"Ayame, prepare yourself! Our biggest customers are here!" The man said, winking at Naruto and Iruka as they sat down. "So, what can I get you boys today? Let me guess the, er-"

"The special, please, Mister Teuchi!" Naruto ordered with a grin. Now that he thought about it, Mister Teuchi and his daughter, Ayame, were also always rather kind to him for some reason. He wondered if, as far from the center of town they worked and lived, if they had maybe been witness to his graffiti artistry earlier. The fact that they didn't really bring it up or react differently than normal told him no.

"I figured. You two were always crazy enough to try my more unique recipes!" Teuchi followed the statement with a robust belly-laugh. "I get right to work on it." He said as he headed back to start cooking. Ayame emerged soon after and quietly set out the dishes and utensils for them to prepare for their food.

"Alright, so, Naruto... Let's start at the beginning." Iruka said, continuing the conversation from earlier. "Where have you been the past few days? I thought you were just sick, but the kids have been spreading nasty rumors about you, and I heard a girl named Hinata from another class was trying to find you and you weren't home. I even checked your house myself and you were nowhere to be seen." Iruka explained, hoping to get a straight answer out of Naruto to repay his expressed interest.

"Training." Naruto answered.

"You've been skipping school to train?" Iruka asked as more customers came into the shop behind him and began taking their seats. "You know you can train after class, right?"

"I do that every day, though! My taijutsu and martial weapon skills are fine, but every time I try to pull off any ninjutsu or genjutsu, nothing happens! My chakra just builds and... Nothing ever comes out." Naruto explained, the very thought of this kind of block frustrating him.

"So that's what you were doing, Naruto? Trying to get you chakra to work?" Iruka guessed.

"Not exactly!" Naruto said with a crooked smile. "Last week, that girl you mentioned, Hinata? She told me that there was a graduate from the Academy last year who had the exact same problem! He apparently trained his body and his taijutsu skills so hard that just those skills impressed the judges for his finals and allowed him to pass!" He explained with loud enthusiasm.

"Huh... This is the first I've heard of that" Iruka pondered as Ayame, a brown-haired girl of around twenty, bought the bowls of ramen, filled to the brim, carefully from the kitchen to rest in from of them. The steam was piping hot and wafted in a delightfully pungent aroma. "So... You were training your body to be stronger and rival this jutsu-less genin so that you could pass your final as well?" Iruka asked before they prepared their chopsticks to dig in.

"It's not just that, Iruka." Naruto elaborated. "I promised Konohamaru and his friends and Hinata that I would become one of the greatest shinobi who ever lived."

Iruka choked a bit on some ramen or shrimp that almost went the wrong way down. "Then why would you deface the Hokage Faces? That would make you more enemies in this town than you already have with your behavior and attitude." Iruka said, left wanting for some clarity on the graffiti incident.

Naruto stopped a moment, thinking of the best way to put it. "I wanted to send a message, a message to everyone in this village who hates me that I'm not going anywhere!" Naruto started. "The Hokage are my heroes, as much as anyone else in this village, especially the Fourth, who beat the Nine-tailed fox demon. Not to mention Mister Sarutobi and his family have been really kind to me." He digressed. "...But if I'm going to become one of the greatest ninja this village has ever seen, I need to set a goal for myself, I need to surpass them, I-I need to be better!" Naruto was smiling, apparently pumped up. "I need to win the village over and become the greatest Hokage who ever lived!" All of the other customers in the restaurant went completely silent.

"Becoming Hokage is a pretty tall order. They don't just let anyone have that position. You have to be recognized as one of the strongest ninja in the village, sure, but you also have to have the leadership abilities to back it up as well as a vote of confidence from the village elders." Iruka explained quietly, trying to keep the conversation low. "It's a great goal to work towards, but I don't really see that happening any time soon, I'm afraid to say."

Naruto waved all of Iruka's objections away. "I'm going to make it happen. I'll prove myself to the village and earn the right to be their Hokage. You'll see." Naruto ended. They continued to eat and make small-talk for a good while longer until they were through. Iruka paid for their meals, the both of them thanked Teuchi and Ayame for their food, and them went their separate ways to go and rest for the night... The next day was the Academy's final exam.

-ⱷ-


	6. The Eager Rebel - 5

_**Chapter Five - The Eager Rebel: The Scroll**_

-ⱷ-

After Iruka and Naruto went their separate ways for the night, Naruto leisurely strolled through the cool night air of Konoha. His eyes took in the beauty of many scattered paper lamps in front of each and every house and storefront. His ears rang with the hustle and bustle of busy streets as many had also begun to trek from every which-way in the village, a jumbling waterfall of words and footsteps, melding with the sweet tastes and smells of the air as bakers baked warm confections to combat a chilly night to come.

Naruto always thought that this time everyday was simultaneously the most beautiful and the most dangerous. After all, when people amass en masse, the criminals and gangs had a place to apply their trade amidst the disorienting confusion of busy streets when people all made way to their homes. While most people kept their minds on their destination, those seedier types would sometimes leave bodies dead, people kidnapped, or wallets missing when all the feet had finished their trambling of road and dirt. It gave the night an eerie air to one who had the mind to keep their wits about themselves. Naruto, being a ninja in training at the Academy, was one of these people.

He could feel and hear the steady footfalls in rhythm with his own a short distance behind him, hear the breaths that passed through the quivering lips of a person intending to keep a brisk, yet controlled pace. _A thief? _Naruto thought. _Maybe a mugger? _Then he reminded himself of the graffiti on the Hokage Faces from earlier. _Is someone still pissed at me about that? They probably mean to catch me and beat me up as soon as I turn a corner... _That thought considered, Naruto began to sprint, rudely pushing aside everyone in front of him that was in his way. The pursuer had let out an audible gasp and started to run as well to try and keep up. Naruto rounded the corner to his house, turned about-face just as he hit the wall, unsheathed a kunai knife from a utility pouch at his right leg and bradished it at-

A twenty-seven year old man with shoulder length white hair who turned the corner with a bit of a frightened look on his face. Naruto sighed of relief and put his kunai away. The man was familiar to him. His name was Mizuki, a friend of Iruka's, and like Iruka himself, was an Academy instructor. "Sorry about that, Mister Mizuki." Naruto said, sincerely apologetic about taking the man for some kind of thief or mugger.

"Nonsense! I'm actually impressed." Mizuki chuckled, waving the mishap away with a smile. "You reacted quickly, and had the fox-like reflexes to pull it off. If I were your teacher, I would have graded that maneuver top marks." Mizuki's face then became a bit more serious, melting from a pleased smile to a stern look of concern. "I'm not here to test your techniques though, Naruto. I was eating at Ichiraku Ramen when I couldn't help but overhear you were having trouble with your chakra and channeling it into jutsu, would that be correct?"

Naruto felt a bit embarrassed and ashamed at Mizuki learning this, he supposed he should learn to control the volume of his voice a bit better while in public. "Y-yes sir. I was hoping to finally be able to pass the Academy final this year and graduate based on hand-to-hand taijutsu and weapons training."

Mizuki reacted with a fearful sigh as he shook his head. "You really are in an unfortunate spot Naruto..."

"What's wrong, Mister Mizuki?" Naruto asked curiously. He was growing more concerned about the finals now, this reaction from a teacher at the Academy could not be a good sign.

"Well..." Mizuki started and paused, thinking of a way to deliver the hard news he was about to deliver. "Under another teacher, that display and your sense of spirit would have definitely netted you a pass, but I'm afraid to say that Iruka's standards this year are fairly strict about being able to pull of ninjutsu and genjutsu, and I fear that, as quick as your reactions are, Iruka probably won't allow you to pass until you have more power behind it."

Naruto's mouth was agape. His whole strategy to beating that final and graduating hinged on all the taijutsu and weapons training he had skipped classes to undertake, and now Mizuki was telling him it was all wasted effort. "Dammit! If it's not one thing, it's another!" He growled. "I have to make it this year! I just gotta!" Naruto thought a moment. "Mister Mizuki, do you know of anything I can do to help me pass?! Please, I'll do anything!"

Mizuki glanced off somewhere for a while, scratching his chin as he seemed to think of something to help Naruto's situation. "Well, there is a scroll that might help you, it's filled with some pretty advanced jutsu-"

"-But how is jutsu supposed to help if I can't use jutsu?" Naruto interrupted.

"Listen. It has one really special jutsu contained inside. It's like a ritual that draws from the chakra of things around you if you cannot do it yourself, it helps to unlock the hidden potential of an individual, to release whatever is blocking the flow of their chakra!" Mizuki said, almost excited at the prospect of this ability.

"That sounds amazing!" Naruto replied, with ample enthusiasm. "So you're saying if I perform this ritual jutsu, I could start performing jutsus and pass the final exam?"

Mizuki nodded, but with a serious look on his face. "There is still one problem. This scroll, the scroll of seals, is locked away within the Third Hokage's home. You will have to infiltrate Lord Sarutobi's house and steal the scroll of seals from a glass case in his bedroom. Do you think you can do that?"

Naruto was trembling all over from a combination of cold from the lightening temperature of the air, anxiousness at the prospect of unlocking his potential, and the impending dread of trying to steal the scroll without getting caught. "Y-yeah! I think I can! Thanks for all the help, Mister Mizuki! Now I have to go prepare!"

Mizuki nodded with a smile and headed off while Naruto immediately rushed inside his home. The house itself was rather spacious for a teenager like him, with enough room for maybe three to four people to make a living. Despite him being the only tenant, the house nevertheless looked in disarray, dirty, lived-in by a disorganized teenager, there was little wonder how it got that way. Naruto changed his clothing to some long-sleeved black turtleneck and long-legged dark bluish-black pants as his attire, suited for the dark night that had fallen, knowing that his vibrant orange clothes would be ill-suited for an operation as delicate as this. He filled a bag with little trick toys and firecrackers he had accumulated from years of childhood and delinquency. He finished decking himself out for this important mission by donning a black face mask and placing the goggles from over his forehead to his eyes.

He approached the Hokage's house with careful consideration. By this time at night the streets were mostly clear and most people had turned off their lamps for the nightly village curfew making travel to the Hokage residency near the center of town a breeze. The problem was getting in. The Hokage Residency grounds were constantly lit and the Third Hokage himself picked guards to patrol the house and yards surrounding it. The area was lush with carefully-trimmed bushes and sculpted topiary among vivid green grass that looked hand-cut to a uniform height of maybe a few centimeters. This lawn and garden was the pride of the village, but as much as Naruto kinda admired the design of it all, he had something he needed to do. He gathered a handful of kunai knives from the utility pouch on his right leg and retrieved other supplies from his bag he brought along.

Namely, he set aside a variety of small firecrackers and sparklers, a spool of string, and two pieces of flint. Naruto then tied the firecrackers and sparklers to the kunai, lit their fuses, and sent them flying to various corners of the yard and garden. Soon after, he could see the guards catching sight of the fires and yelling orders at each other as they tried to make sense of the flaming mess, causing them to abandon their posts as they all split up in different directions trying to deal with the fires, none of them facing Naruto's point of entry in the chaos.

He rushed quietly up to the house in the turmoil, closed in on the closest entrance to the house, and just as he tried to reach for the door handle to try and open it, the door swung inwardly ajar on its own. Standing before him at this very moment, in the flesh, was Hiruzen Sarutobi. He looked exactly like the face from the Hokage Faces monument, and yet, ironically, stonier. His face had wrinkles of age and fatigue so deep that they made his face look chiseled by some master artist. "What the hell is happening?" He asked, yet to notice Naruto as he stepped outside the doorway, offering Naruto the perfect window of opportunity to sneak in. Naruto snuck in just past the Third Hokage as he talked to the guards.

Naruto scanned the room carefully and quickly found the glass case with a large scroll on display in the center. Below the scroll was a plaque reading:

'THE SCROLL OF SEALS'

- MINATO NAMIKAZE, FOURTH HOKAGE

_If this thing works as advertised, the Fourth was a mad genius. _Naruto thought to himself and he reached for the gnarled wood-carved handle of the case to find it locked. _Damn... I was in such a hurry I didn't consider that. _Naruto looked around for something to break open the case to find a large book on what was presumably the Third's nightstand. He could still hear loud shouting and shuffling outside as the guards had gathered buckets of water and started splashing the fires out.

Desperate, Naruto took the large book and slammed it into the glass, breaking the pane with a loud crash followed by the tinkle of bits of glass. His hand got cut a little, but it was nothing serious, so he tossed the book aside onto the ground, grabbed the scroll and ran through the house, barging through the front door out of the living room to get out, racing past a group of guards searching for the arsonist, who spotted him on his way out. One of them yelled, "STOP!", but by that time, Naruto was already running for the gates of town. 

The guards gave a good chase along the way, but as Naruto exited the village gates, he lit and threw a smokescreen bomb behind himself to cover his trail as he ran for the forest just outside of town, the same one he used earlier for his finals practice. He was going to be safe for a while to read the scroll and try that ritual jutsu that Mizuki had mentioned. Naruto quickly opened and unraveled the scroll excitedly, quickly scanning through jutsu he'd have never dreamt of learning, looking for the one that would unlock his ability to learn the Academy jutsus and all the other jutsus within the scroll. Eventually, his eyes were drawn to it and he painstakingly reproduced the various signs and symbols for the jutsu in the dirt and began to form the signs.

-ⱷ-


End file.
